Just what can you do with a quarter these days?

Well, you can go to a quarter auction!

Ever been to one? Me neither...until this weekend! My mom & I joined my friend Karen (who is a Dove independent chocolatier!) at her table this Saturday at a Quarter Auction raising money for Relay for Life. We bought our seats at Karen's table (which was a fabulous deal in itself because Karen fed us fabulous concoctions made from the Dove chocolate she sells!) and brought along 2 big bags of quarters.

Confession: I forgot to go to the bank and get my quarters. My mom came to my rescue. No one person should seriously have access to that many quarters on that short of notice...but she does! And I was glad!

Basically the way the quarter auction works (or at least the one we went to!) is that each item up for bid has a set number of quarters for its bid...some smaller items had 1 quarter bids and the biggest items were 4 quarter bids. Everyone gets a paddle for bidding, and each table has a cup to collect quarters.

When each item comes up for bid, everyone who wants to bid on that item puts their quarters in the cup, and a runner from your table collects the quarters. When your quarters go in, your paddle goes up. A number is drawn, and if it matches your paddle number (and you bid!) you win! If the person whose number was drawn did not bid, they just keep drawing until a winner is found.

My strategy was to bid on everything...57 quarters worth of bids ($14.25 for normal folks). And guess what?

I won!

First, I won an adorable little mini purse and gift certificate from Premier Designs jewelry....

But my absolute favorite thing was a gift bag from my friend Karen full of fabulous Dove Chocolate Discovery deliciousness!! So what kind of goodies did I get?

How about a full 1/2 pound of chef series Dove dark chocolate (just wait to see what I made with some of it later this week!). Plus, some amazing chocolate-covered pretzels and chocolate covered graham crackers and some chocolate mousse mix.

I think I'm in Heaven.

How about you, do you love chocolate, too?

And, don't forget to check out my friend Regina's Relay for Life fundraising! It's a fabulous chance to buy some of the products you know, love and use every day while helping to kick cancer's butt!